Did You Know?

Just where is the Christian mission field today? “The Western world is the only major segment of the world’s population in which Christianity is not growing,” say Tom Clegg and Warren Bird, authors of Lost in America: How You and Your Church Can Impact the World Next Door (Group Publishing, 2001). It is not surprising then that, according to World Christian Encyclopedia, the United States — the world’s largest missionary-sending country — has ironically become the world’s largest missionary-receiving country.

Joel Carpenter also notes the irony that much of the energy in the Western Christian church is being fueled by immigrants. For instance, there are 3,000 African Christian congregations in Great Britain. Twelve hundred Chinese evangelical congregations thrive in the United States and Canada. And, in the United States, 3,000 Catholic parishes hold Spanish-language masses each week.